Is Your Posture Causing Your Pain? Two Simple Ways to Find Out

For the past few months, my car had been pulling to the right side. In the beginning it wasn’t too bad, but as time went by it progressively began to get worse. I tried ignoring it for a while and even got used to the pulling. Finally, someone pointed out that my tire was wearing unevenly and was bald on the inside. I knew I needed to fix the problem, but I didn’t take action until I heard that grinding noise coming from my rotors. I visited my favorite mechanic and was told that not only did I have premature wearing, but I needed two new tires in addition new breaks and one new rotor. Unfortunately, I had just bought new tires within the past year and now, because of my neglect, I am forced to buy two new ones.

Just like a car, our bodies need proper care and maintenance. Many people experience pain daily and do nothing about it. We know we need to fix the problem, but just don’t want to take the time, spend the money or hear that the symptom could possibly be worse than we thought. When you have an ache or a pain, you may take aspirin to dull the pain, but this is not fixing the problem. We are just covering it up and are not dealing with why we have the pain.

You’d be upset with your mechanic if you got back in your car and the car was still pulling. So, why do we take aspirin and wear braces expecting the pain to go away for good? We treat our cars better than we do ourselves! We sacrifice pleasures for our pain. We are willing to go without playing golf, tennis, picking up our kids or will struggle to walk across a parking lot, but the minute our car makes a loud noise, we take it in. Our bodies our yelling at us, HEY I’M IN PAIN - HELP ME! But we chose to ignore it, take an aspirin, or complain about it. Unfortunately, the problem is still there.

When our car breaks down, a mechanic will do a full evaluation to determine the reason the car broke down. The same is true with Posture Therapy. If we have a pain in our knee, we don’t want to focus on just the knee. We want to focus on why the knee hurts. A full evaluation of the entire body will help us treat the cause of the problem, not chase a symptom pain. Knee pain may be a result of misaligned hips. If that is the case, the knee problem will never go away no matter how much we try to fix the knee.

When you back out of the driveway, do you look behind you better one way than the other? Do you have full range of motion looking both ways? Tennis elbow and arthritis are symptoms of poor alignment. Many people will say, "I can’t run anymore because my knee hurts or I’d love to play tennis, but my shoulder and elbow hurt." I guess I’m getting old. One question we like to ask is, “What about the other knee or elbow? Is it younger?”

How can you tell if your pain is a symptom of a larger postural dysfunction?

1. Look at your feet. Do they turn out or in? Is one forward?

2. Look at your hips by focusing on your waistband. Does it look like one hip is higher or closer to the mirror?

3. Look at your shoulders. Is one higher or does one appear closer to the mirror?

4. Now stand on each leg one at a time. Can you stand more easily on one leg than the other?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you are showing the signs of misalignment. Your body is revealing the wear of transferring the workload to other parts of the body.

Here are two quick tests to determine if your posture is affecting your pain:

1. Stand up and rate your pain on a scale of 1-10. Next, pigeon toe your feet with your toes touching. Tighten your thighs. Does this change your pain?

2. Stand normally and interlace your hands behind your head. Pull your elbows back as far as you can. Did your pain increase or decrease?

Both positions work to change your posture. If either position changed your pain, then it tells you that your posture has something to do with it. You can, therefore, deduce that by returning your body to its proper alignment and restoring normal joint function, you can positively impact your pain.

Diane Recker is the owner of Body Restorations by Diane and a practitioner of Posture Therapy in the Temecula Valley. She can be reached at 951-314-1265.


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Is Your Posture Causing Your Pain? Two Simple Ways to Find Out By Diane Recker For the past few months, my car had been pulling to the right side. In the beginning it wasn’t too bad, but as time went by it progressively began to get worse. I tried ignoring it for a while and even got used to the pulling. Finally, someone pointed out that my tire was wearing unevenly and was bald on the inside. I knew I needed to fix the problem, but I didn’t take action until I heard that grinding noise coming from my rotors. I visited my favorite mechanic and was told that not only did I have premature wearing, but I needed two new tires in addition new breaks and one new rotor. Unfortunately, I had just bought new tires within the past year and now, because of my neglect, I am forced to buy two new ones. Just like a car, our bodies need proper care and maintenance. Many people experience pain daily and do nothing about it. We know we need to fix the problem, but just don’t want to take the time, spend the money or hear that the symptom could possibly be worse than we thought. When you have an ache or a pain, you may take aspirin to dull the pain, but this is not fixing the problem. We are just covering it up and are not dealing with why we have the pain. You’d be upset with your mechanic if you got back in your car and the car was still pulling. So, why do we take aspirin and wear braces expecting the pain to go away for good? We treat our cars better than we do ourselves! We sacrifice pleasures for our pain. We are willing to go without playing golf, tennis, picking up our kids or will struggle to walk across a parking lot, but the minute our car makes a loud noise, we take it in. Our bodies our yelling at us, HEY I’M IN PAIN - HELP ME! But we chose to ignore it, take an aspirin, or complain about it. Unfortunately, the problem is still there. When our car breaks down, a mechanic will do a full evaluation to determine the reason the car broke down. The same is true with Posture Therapy. If we have a pain in our knee, we don’t want to focus on just the knee. We want to focus on why the knee hurts. A full evaluation of the entire body will help us treat the cause of the problem, not chase a symptom pain. Knee pain may be a result of misaligned hips. If that is the case, the knee problem will never go away no matter how much we try to fix the knee. When you back out of the driveway, do you look behind you better one way than the other? Do you have full range of motion looking both ways? Tennis elbow and arthritis are symptoms of poor alignment. Many people will say, "I can’t run anymore because my knee hurts or I’d love to play tennis, but my shoulder and elbow hurt." I guess I’m getting old. One question we like to ask is, “What about the other knee or elbow? Is it younger?” How can you tell if your pain is a symptom of a larger postural dysfunction? 1. Look at your feet. Do they turn out or in? Is one forward? 2. Look at your hips by focusing on your waistband. Does it look like one hip is higher or closer to the mirror? 3. Look at your shoulders. Is one higher or does one appear closer to the mirror? 4. Now stand on each leg one at a time. Can you stand more easily on one leg than the other? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you are showing the signs of misalignment. Your body is revealing the wear of transferring the workload to other parts of the body. Here are two quick tests to determine if your posture is affecting your pain: 1. Stand up and rate your pain on a scale of 1-10. Next, pigeon toe your feet with your toes touching. Tighten your thighs. Does this change your pain? 2. Stand normally and interlace your hands behind your head. Pull your elbows back as far as you can. Did your pain increase or decrease? Both positions work to change your posture. If either position changed your pain, then it tells you that your posture has something to do with it. You can, therefore, deduce that by returning your body to its proper alignment and restoring normal joint function, you can positively impact your pain. Diane Recker is the owner of Body Restorations by Diane and a practitioner of Posture Therapy in the Temecula Valley. She can be reached at 951-314-1265.